Two ultras closely linked with ISIS have been given death sentences by the special court of NIA in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
NIA special court judge Dinesh Chandra Mishra on Thursday announced verdict in the murder case of a retired teacher Ramesh Babu of Kanpur. The ISIS ultras Atif and Faisal had sprayed Ramesh Babu with bullets in 2016. A case was lodged in this regard at Chakeri Police Station of Kanpur. On September 4, the NIA special court had held both these ultras guilty for murder. The government counsel in the NIA court, Brijesh Kumar Yadav said that death sentences have been given in three different sections while life imprisonment in the fourth one. The court has also imposed a penalty of Rs 15 lakh on each of the two. The government counsel said that death sentences have been given in section 302, 120 B and 16 UAPA while life imprisonment in section 18 UAPA.
According to special prosecutor of National Investigation Agency Kaushal Sharma, he had pleaded for death sentence to ultras Atif and Faisal as both had killed an innocent retired teacher on the basis of his being Hindu with Tilak on forehead. He said that the court has found their crime as the rarest of the rare and awarded death sentence for them. Another aide of these two terrorists, Saifullah was killed in an encounter with the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) at Thakurganj, Lucknow in the year 2017.